Kyrgyzstan leader demands president go into exile as civil war threat rises

Roza Otunbayeva, the new self-proclaimed leader of Kyrgyzstan, has warned the overthrown president Kurmanbek Bakiyev is plotting a comeback from the south of the Central Asian country amid fears of a civil war.

Miss Otunbayeva, a former ambassador to the UK, urged the man she deposed to flee the country while the offer stood to end a tense standoff that has already left at least 76 people dead. She said she would guarantee the personal safety of the country’s overthrown president if he left quietly. “Bakiyev is trying everything to win back power,” she said. “He has the possibility to flee the country. We guarantee his personal safety if he formally resigns his office.”

But there were few signs Mr Bakiyev planned to do so. Holed up in his southern stronghold of Jalalabad, Mr Bakiyev insisted he was a force to be dealt with even though he has lost control over the military, police and secret service.

“I don’t admit defeat in any way,” he told a Russian radio station. “I do not believe this is a defeat for me.”